Conventional driving intention estimation systems estimate driving intention using the driver's sight-line behavior. (See, for example, unexamined Japanese patent application No. 2002-331850). These devices reflect the driver's sight-line onto a forward projection surface and estimate driver intention using sight-line frequency distribution to multiple regions of the projection surface.
The conventional systems described above have been capable of estimating driving intention by using the driver's sight-line and the frequency of that sight-line. However, problems include the fact that driver sight-line behavior is influenced variously by differing driving environments, and accuracy of intention estimation differs between individual drivers; therefore it is desirable to provide a solution that estimates driving intention with consistently higher accuracy.
The present system for estimating a driver intention comprises an information detector that detects information necessary to operate a vehicle, an operational input detection device for detecting an operational input by a real driver, first and second imaginary driver operational input calculation devices configured to respectively calculate imaginary operational inputs of multiple imaginary drivers based on the information from the information detector, wherein the first and second imaginary driver operational input calculation devices calculate the imaginary operational inputs of the multiple imaginary drivers based on different methods or different information, an imaginary driver operational input selection device configured to select one of the multiple imaginary drivers based on the imaginary operation inputs calculated by the first and second imaginary driver operational input calculation devices; and a driving intention estimator configured to estimate an intention of the real driver based on the operational input of the real driver detected by the operational input detection device and the one of the multiple imaginary drivers selected by the imaginary driver operational input selection device.